


Catching Up

by SilverCyanide (LemonFairy)



Series: Legerdemain [5]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen, Genderqueer Character, M/M, Multi, Other, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-31
Updated: 2013-05-31
Packaged: 2017-12-13 12:44:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/824451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LemonFairy/pseuds/SilverCyanide
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jehan has terrible timing, and Joly realizes there are some things he might have never considered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catching Up

She’s been nose deep in her Classics reading for the past few hours, dead to the world, so Jehan doesn’t think anything of knocking on Joly’s door. He always takes meticulous biology notes, and she’s on a roll and really does need to fill in the places she’s accidentally written poetry.

“J-just a moment!” Joly calls, sounding a little shaky. Jehan hears a couple of thumps and then Joly cracks open the door in jeans and a t-shirt that looks too big for him. His hair is very mussed. Jehan can hear laughter from behind him.

“Oh God, did I interrupt something?” she asks, immediately worried. “I just—wanted to know if I could borrow your bio notes.” Joly glances behind him and after a moment turns back to Jehan and sighs.

“Yeah, no, it’s fine, I’ve got them—they’re on my laptop though, so come in.” He holds the door open just enough to let Jehan slip in. She does with ease and sees a brown girl in a shirt that is definitely Joly’s sitting on the bed pulling her hair back; a broad-shouldered black boy is next to her, back to the wall, chuckling. Joly tries to glare, but the way the two of them laugh tells Jehan just how effective it was.

“Who’s this?” the girl asks, and Jehan realizes she’s bumped into her a few times in the hallway.

“I’m Jehan,” she says, because it’s a name she prefers regardless of her gender. “I live right across the hall—I just… needed to get bio notes, I hadn’t realized you guys were busy or—” She blushes scarlet. The other girl laughs.

“Don’t worry hon, you didn’t really, promise. We were just hanging out—” She flicks the large boy’s arm when he laughs again “—you know, snuggling.” Joly, sitting in the middle of the floor and typing in his laptop password, is the one who blushes this time. The girl tosses at a teddy bear at Joly’s head and rolls her eyes before turning back to Jehan. “I’m Musichetta by the way. And he—” she points to the boy next to her on the bed, “is Luke or Bossuet or Lesgles or whatever the hell he wants to go by today.” Musichetta sticks her tongue out and Bossuet elbows her in the ribs.

“Got them,” Joly mutters and stands up. “Would it work better if I emailed them to you or…?”

“I only need a couple of sections, that would probably be overkill.” Jehan fiddles with the end of her ponytail. “I could—I don’t want to take your computer if you need it, it’s probably fine if you just email them to me I guess, whatever’s easiest…” Joly scrolls down through his document of notes and shakes his head.

“Which sections do you need?” he finally says, sighing. When Jehan hesitates, he says, “Go get your notes, we’ll go through things together.” Jehan brightens.

“Thank you,” she said in a rush of breath and scurries off. When she returns a minute later, Musichetta and Bossuet are lingering in the doorway.

“Oh no, I’m sorry—I shouldn’t—you guys were hanging out, and I could do this later and—”

Musichetta taps Jehan thrice in the center of her forehead with her index finger. “Don’t worry about it, we really should have left ages ago anyway. Luke, don’t give me that pout, I know you had a paper due an hour ago.”

“Shit!” Bossuet sighs a little. “I totally forgot about that. Why didn’t you remind me?”

“You say that like you care,” Joly says and Jehan sees an uncharacteristic eye roll out of him. “Shoo, go get it done or charm the pants off of your professor or whatever.” Then Bossuet leans in for a goodbye kiss and Musichetta follows before the two of them leave and Joly motions Jehan in.

“You three are cute,” she says to break some of the tension that’s formed as Joly settles on the floor with his back against the bed. She sits next to him, legs crossed. The two of them spend the next forty minutes catching her up on notes and then, almost to the end, Jehan peters out and tips backward with her legs pressed straight against the wall.

“Is that all of them?” Joly asks, sounding a lot less exhausted than she does. Jehan sighs and looks to the notebook flipped open beside her.

“I… would say yes, but I sorta accidentally wrote classics poetry over my notes from the last class.”

“I literally do not understand how that is possible,” he says. “Like, how do you manage to miss so much?” She shrugs.

“I’m just not that into bio,” she admits, “or, well… science is cool, and there are times it’s certainly beautiful, but I kind of get distracted by poetry.” She flops an arm over her eyes. “Sorry for bugging you with this. Especially earlier…”

“It’s not a huge deal,” Joly says, “I just wasn’t expecting you earlier when um… yeah.” Then, he immediately adds, “We really were just snuggling. And, well, making out a little but nothing like weird I-I promise!” Jehan is surprised to feel herself go scarlet, while Joly stays relatively unflushed. Then with a groan she turns herself over and props up on her elbows.

“So this might be weird and too forward,” she starts, kicking her socked feet back against the white cinderblocks of the small dorm room. “But like… we know each other, right?”

Joly is halfway through wiping down his glasses but he glances at her anyway. “Yeah, I mean, we do this sometimes and we share classes and talk or whatever.” Jehan nods.

“Right. I just—asked, because I sorta… met this girl in a class who I also know, and she convinced me to go to this… I guess it’s political but also just like supportive LGBT group and, I dunno.” Jehan shrugs and taps her feet together. “I just figured, you three—I mean, it seems moderately queer or whatever, maybe you’d be interested in coming too?” She’s sure all of her blood is in her face right now. “It’d just be nice to know someone else.”

When she glances at him, Jehan finds that Joly is peering at her with furrowed brows through his glasses, but he doesn’t look upset. “I’m flattered,” he finally says, his voice just a tad higher than normal, “but I’m straight.”

The surprise turns back on her. “Oh—I— _sorry_ , I shouldn’t have, I just assumed that, because of earlier, it was like… all three of you equally.”

“It is,” Joly says almost immediately. “I mean, I guess we’ve got a habit of squishing me in the middle recently—because I’m new here, and Musichetta and I dated in high school, and I haven’t gotten to see much of Luke in person until now but um… yeah, it is, I’m just… I don’t like guys?”

Jehan knows she shouldn’t. She knows how someone identifies is personal, that labels are sometimes iffy. But she can’t help the high-pitched, mortified giggle that escapes.

“Sorry—oh God, I’m so sorry, I  _shouldn’t_ , but… it just, you and Bossuet, plus I just figured—he was a guy?” She folds her arms and drops her head into them, nose bumping the dusty dorm carpet. Joly makes a small, choked sound.

“ _Oh_ ,” Joly says, sounding almost surprised. “No, he is. That’s… right.” Joly ‘hmm’s a little. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. He’s just… Luke, not like ‘a guy’?” When Joly looks at Jehan, it reminds her of how he looks during biology lessons even she manages to stay awake for. “Can you be like… mostly into girls but with a couple of guys?” It sounds both genuine and scientific. Jehan giggles.

“Of course, you can be into people any combination of ways. And it can change, too.” She hauls herself up so she’s sitting again and picks up her pen again. “Right. Finishing these notes.”

But, as Jehan leaves Joly’s room a half hour later, Joly asks, “When is it? That group thing?” and Jehan tells him with a grin. 


End file.
